Halloween has been a year-round affair for Mark Lanegan with a slew of gloomy singles and one vampirish video surrounding the April release of his album, Gargoyle. Today, he shares the video for “Emperor.” The video has a Western Horror meets Walking Dead atmosphere; it’s an appropriately grim fever dream starring who I assume is “the emperor” in a number of compromising situations (see: deadly car crash, televised assassination, stabbing.) Lanegan’s voice creeps and shakes over the marching beat, “Upon the window sill / The cat silently quaking / Who is left to kill? / Just the emperor.” Here’s what director Joshua Lipworth has to say about it:

The story is based on the desperate final hours of a dictator ousted by his own people and loosely based on the fall of Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator. Firmly in denial of his desperate circumstance, he marches steadfastly towards his tragic demise. His grip on reality faltering with every step. The video was shot in 16mm on location in Estonia. Predominantly in the suburbs of Tallin and the deserted underwater soviet prison camp of Rummu.